Lieutenant Gebauer shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not doing any thinking along those lines. I’m simply obeying orders. I guess we both know what we think of this war, anyhow,” and closing one eye he looked at Nat suggestively.
“We sure do! It was a howling shame to drag us over here, three thousand miles from home, to fight,” grumbled the money lender’s son.
“Sh-sh! Don’t talk so loud, Nat,” murmured the lieutenant warningly. “If anybody heard you, you’d get into hot water.”
“I don’t care! It’s true, isn’t it?”
“Every word. I’d rather be back home right now than here. I think I could make a barrel of money out of our business in spite of the war. And what am I getting out of this? A measly lieutenant’s pay!”
“Humph! you get a pile more than I do as a common soldier.” Nat looked at his companion slyly. “I guess you’d like it first rate to be back in Crumville again with Jessie Wadsworth, wouldn’t you?”
“Oh, I don’t know. That would depend on how she treated me.”
“You two didn’t get along very well during the last few days of your stay, did you?”
“Oh, we got along well enough. But I’ve got to be going now. There is a whole lot I’ve got to do,” continued the lieutenant hastily, and then walked away.
“I’ll bet you got the cold shoulder somehow,” murmured Nat, gazing after the retreating officer. “Just the same, I’m sorry you didn’t get in with Jessie, and put a spoke in Dave Porter’s wheel.”